âI donât hate them, I just donât love them.â There was a difference, at least he thought so. He could not cry for a doomed species, especially not one his father always favored over him. A cat with mange, mewling in a box. They choked on the milk Akira offered them in his foolish kindness. He offered to kill them early, but in the end he did not even need to. He simply watched as they suffocated from their own helplessness. He realized his eyes were gazing off, and doubled back to the stranger. She would notice something like that, catch him off guard if he was not careful. She might catch his lie.Â
He did not need to go out of his way to insult a human, it was petty like a child holding a magnifying glass over an antâs hill. He wondered why then? Perhaps it was something about her that irked him. Omniscient, at least that was how she seemed, her eyes constantly moving back and forth absorbing every detail. Omniscient, maybe, but he hoped not otherwise she might be a dull existence like his father. âDo you believe in hell? I wonder what it would be like. I imagine, if itâs just physical pain, like they say, things cutting into you, starving you, making you ill - then eventually youâd grow numb to it, donât you think? I read that once hell and heaven looked exactly the same. Always succeeding, always feeling happy and content, everlasting joy and peace. The only difference is that in hell, you knew you were in hell.â
He turned his head over his shoulder and sighed. His body had been all wound up, and tightening a moment ago as he pictured the rampant destruction of humanity as Junko described. âWhat you wanted was to make a heavân of hell, wasnât it? Well, I can sympathize with you too at least. When humans and demons began to fight, I used my large twitter following to whip them into a frenzy about holy wars and what not. Then when they were at their most desperate I told them how to defeat the demons. That demons came from exasperated humans who could not fit in. A well told lie that I spun to be the noose humanity hung itself upon. From that moment humanity vented itâs anxiety on each other, they tore themselves apart, limb from limb, gauging their stomachs, letting their innards fall out. All in search of demons. Soon, every last human was gone. They went extinct entirely by their own hand. Thatâs my problem with your ideal world, sadly, itâs unsustainable. Humans are weak. I imagine, you succeeded far too easily with creating those plans of yours.â
Ryo stopped in the middle of his colorful speech, all at once to remember something she asked him when he stared off into the distance earlier. âOh? Am I human? Heavenâs no. Iâm Satan.â He said it all too casually. He even waved. âNice to meet you.â
     Damn, she had said something that had set this previously creepy yet quiet fellow into motion. He was spouting words like it was the end of the world - though, his question made her ponder for a moment. âHell, huh? I mean, sure it could exist in some worlds given how there are apparently an abundance of them, but when I died I didnât experience anything that resembles the typical portrayals. No torture for my sins, no eternal servitude. It was just blackness, emptiness, as if I had just disappeared from existence - like I was in a dreamless sleep. Itâs kind of a blur, but looking back on it, that might have been the perfect hell for me. Eternal boredom.â
     But her plan - had it been hell on Earth? To most, absolutely. They had suffered and screamed and thousands upon thousands had lost their lives in the resulting despair that had ensued. Placing a finger on her lip thoughtfully, though mostly receiving a mouthful of fluffy sleeve due to the length of it on her arm, she hummed aloud. âHmm. While the plan itself was rather complex - the planning, the production, the brainwashing, the provocation, and so on - Iâd say my objective was rather simple. Instead of seeing it as a âheavân of hellâ or mirroring it to any existing parallels of inflecting suffering on the masses, I really just wanted despair for despairâs sake. I love despair, itâs the only thing that makes me feel much of anything, so I suppose I wanted to revel in a world that was dedicated purely to that feeling. I still do. But beyond that, I had no ulterior motive in doing what I did. I couldnât care less if the human race wiped out as a result, if they all end up destroying each other then who gives a shit - as long as I got to experiencing what I wanted, and make others feel it too, I was happy.â It wasnât as if she had expected to live long in such a world. Losing oneâs life was the greatest loss, the greatest tragedy, the greatest despair - and she had experienced it with excitement once her execution had finally happened. âBut youâre right. People are way too easy to manipulate. Youâd swear thereâs nothing at all going on in their heads. It really was so simple in the end to paint them the way I wanted. Just a few tragedies here, a few convincing words there, and the world just collapsed.â
     âSatan?â Oh, so he was the angel God has cast away - Junko had read enough literature and lore to know just about every major biblical story. How interesting. But despite this, her expression remained passive. Not much could really sway her, not even the revelation that she had quite literally taken Satanâs coat - guess the Devil really did wear Prada. "Cool, though you really donât look the way people draw you in books. Let me guess - Photoshop? Damn, I understand completely. Well not personally, Iâm fuckinâ stunning, but other models I work with got âshopped all day long to make themselves decent for covers.â
